We know now that our cleaning products all contain harmful chemicals – 100,106 existing unassessed chemicals are used in Europe – and that they release them in the air we breathe, polluting our lungs. This gang of non grataea rascals, all of them serious health offenders registered with the American EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), are legally squatting our home and happily intoxicating us.

The good news is that you can clean your home without slaving away for hours or poisoning yourself and your family. All you need to destroy domestic terrors is the holy trinity of cleaning, three fabulous, efficient, eco-friendly and economical products:

If you add salt, lemon and a few other biodegradable regulars in your cupboards such as methylated spirits, rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide and sodium percarbonate – you are armed to the teeth.

Today, we’ll tell you how to make lemon vinegar. A total marvel! A mind-blowing product that will amaze you, astound you and bewitch you. It can do almost anything from removing grease marks to disinfecting your worktop with the added bonus of a nice lemony fragrance. Sure, it does smell a teeny vinegary to start with, but the vinegar odor rapidly disappears whereas the lemon scent remains. Don’t use it on marble, granite or other porous surfaces. But apart from these exceptions, you can use for everything, including floors.

To concoct this awesome cleaner, you need white vinegar – the least expensive of all – and lemon and lime peels, i.e. the remains of the citrus used for cooking. Cut them in bits and put them in a bottle, half filled with vinegar. When the bottle is full, leave them to soak for a couple of weeks or more. Strain the vinegar and pour it in a lovely spray bottle. Throw the lemon peels away and start a new bottle immediately, to avoid running out of this magic potion.